development of the digital computer. Hollerith’s company would also eventually
become well-known, becoming International Business Machines, or IBM, in 1924.
What were some of the first motor-driven calculating devices?
Many historians believe that the first motor-driven calculating machine was the
Autarigh,a device designed by Czechoslovakian inventor Alexander Rechnitzer in
- The next step occurred in 1907, when Samuel Jacob Herzstark (1867–1937) pro-
duced a motor-driven version of his Thomas-based calculators in Vienna. In 1920 a
prolific Spanish inventor named Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852–1936) presented an
electromechanical machine wired to a typewriter at the Paris Calculating Machine
Exhibition. His invention performed addition, subtraction, multiplication, and divi-
sion, and then used typewriters as input/output devices. Interestingly enough, even
though the machine made a hit at the exhibition, it was never produced commercially.
More and more such calculating devices with electric motors were invented. By
the 1940s, the electric-motor-driven mechanical calculator had become a common
desktop tool in business, science, and engineering.
What is an electronic calculator?
Most people nowadays are familiar with electronic calculators: small, battery-powered
digital electronic devices that perform simple arithmetic operations and are limited to 359
MATH IN COMPUTING
Has there ever been a competition
between a calculator and an abacus?Y
es, there was once a competition between someone using a calculator and
another person using an abacus. Although the abacus is often considered a
“crude” device to do simple calculations, in expert hands it can work just about
as fast as a calculator.The contest took place in Tokyo, Japan, on November 12, 1946, between the
Japanese abacus and an electric calculating machine. The event was sponsored by
the U.S. Army newspaper Stars and Stripes. The American working the calculat-
ing machine was Private Thomas Nathan Wood of the 20th Finance Disbursing
Section (from General MacArthur’s headquarters), who was considered an expert
calculator operator. The Japanese chose Kiyoshi Matsuzaki, himself an expert
operator of the abacus, from the Savings Bureau of the Ministry of Postal Admin-
istration. In the end, the 2,000-year-old abacus beat the electric calculating
machine in adding, subtracting, dividing, and a problem including all three with
multiplication thrown in. The machine won only when it came to multiplication.